Two hundred and thirty-two students graduated from Ave Maria University (AMU) on Saturday, May 6, making it the university’s largest graduating class to date. Undergraduate degrees numbered 217, two more than last year, and 13 master’s degrees as well as two doctorates were awarded.

It’s a safe bet that a number of these graduates, like many who have gone before, will soon make other educational institutions the beneficiaries of their AMU educations, as some now do at Mason Classical Academy in Naples.

Although the bios of Mason’s faculty show that all of them have highly respectable academic credentials, it’s nonetheless striking to me that a full 42 percent of them are AMU grads.

Mason Classical Academy, a charter school in Naples, affiliated with the Barney Charter Schools Initiative mentored by Hillsdale College, apparently sees an AMU education as a fit with their classically oriented studies program.

On a recent tour given to my husband and me by Susan Turner, an Ave Maria resident who is both Mason’s business manager and parent of a student there, we caught up with a few AMU grads. First, we sat in a class taught with John DeMasi, a 2013 AMU graduate, who was teaching third-grade science. As he energetically and skillfully guided his students, it was impressive to see these orderly and polite children displaying not only memorization but the kind of thinking abilities usually associated with older students.

We also met Charles Carlisi, who arrived at AMU planning to major in biology, but who, when exposed to the core subjects in place during his time there, realized he was more deeply drawn to literature and philosophy. He said the emphasis of that core helps him now “where my classes focus on western civilization.”

When I spotted AMU grad Robert Gotschall in a hallway, I recognized him immediately from AMU’s Shakespeare in Performance troupe, with whom he still acts. Like other troupe members, Gotschall is bringing the love of Shakespeare to a younger generation; this past fall, he directed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Mason.

Turner says the school, which for 2016-2017 encompassed grades K-11, and next year will be a full K-12, now has 854 students and next year should reach 903. Despite the myth that charter schools charge tuition and cherry pick students, that’s not the case, Turner said, explaining charter schools are free and that any student can apply to Mason, where a lottery determines admission.

Nonetheless, Turner points out that Mason Classical Academy “will not be for everyone.”

“Like most schools, we budget to lose a certain number annually, in our case, around 100. Some families move away. Most other departures happen after the first year, when families realize the school wasn’t a fit.” She added, “Students here are expected to work.”

One Ave Maria parent who has no plans for his boys to leave is Tony Musingo. With one child in third grade and another in seventh, he said, “I have no doubt my sons are in the right pace. I like what they are learning and I like the behavior that’s expected.”

As for Ave Maria resident Bob Campbell, whose two daughters are finishing their first year at Mason, they’ll continue, he says, because we “support the value-driven curriculum.”

I left Mason wishing it existed when my own kids were in K-12. The commute is significant, even with carpooling; still, several Ave Maria families think Mason is worth it, and that number will likely grow. And it’s a happy thought for me that so many of the faculty who make Mason such a sought-after option are AMU graduates.

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More news and information about Ave Maria can be found in The Ave Herald (aveherald.com), which Patricia publishes along with her husband, David Shnaider.